Delhi High Court denies bail to man accused of supplying documents to ISI

New Delhi: Delhi High Court has refused to grant bail to one of the five accused arrested for allegedly supplying sensitive documents to ISI operatives of Pakistan, saying allegations against him were "very serious in nature".

Justice P S Teji denied relief at this stage to accused Fareed Khan, an army hawaldar who allegedly shared secret information with other co-accused who used to forward them to Pakistan based intelligence operatives for monetary gains.

"In light of the facts and circumstances, this court is of the view that the allegations against the petitioner are very serious in nature, he is involved with other co-accused in supplying the information relating to Indian national security to Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

Delhi High Court. AFP

"In the kind of cases in which petitioner's involvement is disclosed by the main accused and recovery of documents from the petitioner, in the considered opinion of this court the submission of Additional Public Prosecutor ... regarding misuse of liberty of bail either by fleeing from justice or by tampering with evidence or by indulging again in anti-national activities, cannot be ruled out at this stage, especially when the trial is at an initial stage," the court said.

It said after careful scrutiny of the case and examining the contents of the petition and the FIR, "this court observes that the name of the petitioner is disclosed by the main accused Kaifaitullah Khan, who was the ISI Agent." All the five accused were arrested in connection with alleged supply of secret Indian documents to an operative of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Kafaitullah was the first to be arrested from here on 26 November last year when he was heading to Bhopal to attend a religious congregation and allegedly recruit more spies. This was followed by the arrest of then serving BSF head constable Abdul Rasheed, former army hawaldar Munawwar Ahmad Mir and government school teacher Sabar, who are all currently in judicial custody.

All of them were booked under the Official Secrets Act. During the arguments, Fareed had claimed that the Jammu and Kashmir government had "intentionally passed the direction to the authorities of Crime Branch to torture him" and alleged that the police had falsely planted the materials recovered from his house.

Police countered his claims, saying Fareed had received Rs 20,000 from ISI Agent Faisal-ur-Rehman for providing the said information.

He had passed the information regarding Indian Army to Rehman through his associates Munawwar, Kafaitullah and Sabar, the police had alleged.